After featured appearances at Goa’s Sunsplash reggae carnival, a Dharavi slum reggae fest in Mumbai, and the Jaipur Literary Festival, granddaughter of legendary Reggae King Bob Marley and Rita Marley, Donisha Prendergast will end her India tour in Udaipur at Sayari’s  Sensorium Gypsy Culture Centre in Chandpole.

On Friday, 1 February from 7pm to 10pm, Donisha will lead a discussion of Reggae culture, its historic debts to India, its meaning for outcaste communities and the vital relevance of its messages for a just and creative future. She will also introduce her own global activist initiatives with Nelson Mandela’s grandson Ndaba Mandela and her personal film work.

Donisha the poetic filmmaker will introduce her role in “RasTa, A Soul’s Journey” and her own more recent short film creations; and Donisha the passionate activist will describe the transformative social, political and spiritual power of people’s music like reggae and how it elevated Jamaica’s outcaste Rastafari movement into a respected international force.

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She will recount some themes from her Jaipur Literary Festival (JLF) presentation, “Breaking Down the Walls: Music as an instrument of change in the fight for social justice”; and will invite discussion of its potential for empowering other outcaste groups like India’s Gypsies, Dalits and Adivasis.

Donisha’s return to India 8 years after her filming “Rasta, A Soul’s Journey” here in 2011 has been greeted with great media excitement. She’s been a featured personality in Goa’s famed Sunsplash reggae festival; in major magazines, national press & online coverage; and in the prestigious final Music Stage Conversation at the Jaipur Literary Festival.

Besides these upscale venues, Donisha also participated in a 2-day Dharavi Reggae festival in Mumbai to expose & inspire young ghetto artists in the heart of Mumbai’s huge Dharavi slum

Donisha presents music not just as entertainment, but as a vital social evolutionary driver and will illustrate its egalitarian power with samples from her grandfather’s words, artistry and legacy.

The evening will also include indigenous musical examples from the Sayari Roots of Gypsy troupe and discussion of the parallels between Jamaican and Indian outcaste cultures.

The night will conclude with an open-ended Q&A session and other personal forms of audience interaction.

Everyone interested in Reggae, its Indian & Rastafarian lineage, and/or the transformative energy of outcaste artistry is warmly invited to participate. The suggested donation to defray her travel expenses is Rs. 300, which includes a soft beverage, but no one will be turned away for financial reasons.  The event is co-sponsored by by Sayari’s Sensorium and Big Medicine Charitable Trust. For more information, people are asked to see facebook.com/sayarigypsycentre or call +91-869-684-0315.